Reid: Curse Mainstream Media (MSM) all you like, but beware the Alt-Right even more

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is seen through a TV camera eyepiece as he speaks at a private gathering in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania on November 1, 2016. /DOMINICK REUTER / AFP/Getty Images

In less than a week the free world might be ruled by an orange-skinned Bond villain. If that happens, voters will have only themselves to blame. But it’s also as good an excuse as any to lash out at the media and the role it’s played in this tunnel-of-terrors election campaign we’ve all been forced to endure.

Did the media create Trump? Have the media been unfair to Trump? Are reporters engaging in false equivalency? Don’t they all vote Democrat anyway?

Allegations of media bias, irresponsibility, conflicts of interest and outright hostility have littered this election cycle since it started. Megyn Kelly, Matt Lauer, Lester Holt and many others have been tossed around by a campaign that’s dragged media from the sidelines into its centre ring.

Megyn Kelly is among the journalists who have come under fire during this U.S. election. Victoria Will /
Victoria Will/Invision/AP

We’re at the point now where reporters are routinely singled out at Trump rallies and individually labelled as enemies. It all fits logically within the zeitgeist of his anti-establishment, burn-down-the-castle creed. But it’s also sinister, inciting and dangerous. If people are threatened for doing their job — especially when their job is to provide challenge to those who seek power — then that represents a real attack on institutions and norms that we rely upon to help order our democracies.

All of this has produced a significant amount of thoughtful reflection about media and its appropriate function. Some dismiss this as self-absorbed pearl-clutching but responsible media and professional critics are right to ask these questions. Even if it sounds a bit up-its-own-behind, at least it’s taking place. At least the so-called Mainstream Media — or MSM, to borrow the critics’ label — are subjecting themselves to some of the same scrutiny they apply to candidates.

No such instinct for self-examination or public accountability is detectable however among the MSM rivals. The ranks of the self-styled Alt-Right media are packed with missionaries — seized with a frenzied belief that their means are always justified by the end goal of tearing down established, leftist forces. If traditional standards of journalistic integrity cannot be upheld in the course of this mission — no problem. It’s the Internet, man. Anyfreakingthing goes.

The heavyweight champion of the Alt-Right media movement is the Breitbart News Network — whose leader is currently on a leave-of-absence to serve as CEO of Trump’s presidential bid. It’s an unabashedly conservative online news source that blends politics and populism with a large portion of angry.

Breitbart’s landing page is a pop-up that encourages you to donate to the Trump/Pence ticket. Naturally, that’s just before you get to the journalism. Stories are torqued so hard they nearly squeal. And the headlines are designed to provoke get-down-your-rifle outrage. Now, some will say that Breitbart doesn’t really purport to be news. Except it does. The word is in their title. In fact, the Alt-Right media insist constantly on being taken seriously as news organizations and bristle at suggestions they’re a bunch of in-the-bag hacks. Even as they adhere to no obvious objective journalistic standards, they make criticism of established media a cornerstone of their work — passing judgment and maligning the conduct of mainstream reporters for apparent sport.

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And, as we know, this model is growing, not shrinking. It’s also expanding beyond the United States. Therebel.media — run by Sun TV ex-pat Ezra Levant — is a north-of-the border Breitbart News wannabe. Following a similar model, it relentlessly targets those it judges to be a foe of its reactionary philosophies. Self-characterized correspondents post content that beats the living hell out of Rachel Notley’s NDP, the CBC and anyone who ever posed for a picture with Justin Trudeau — which is admittedly a lot of people.

Recently, they’ve taken to suggesting that Maryam Monsef, the federal minister of democratic institutions is some sort of fifth columnist because it turns out she was unaware that her place of birth was Iran, not Afghanistan. There’s zero verifiable evidence the minister knew of this until very recently. And there’s no question that she is, indeed, an Afghan refugee and an unqualified Canadian citizen. But the stories repeat hearsay and leave sinister impressions of her background and motives. It’s an overt appeal to standing prejudices and an attempt to dim the shine of a young cabinet minister whose story reinforces Trudeau’s celebration of inclusion over suspicion.

Of course, no one has the right to tell TheRebel.com that it shouldn’t spool off whatever blather it wishes, so long as it avoids outright mistruths. Same goes for Breitbart and the rest of the Alt-Right media types. There is a great virtue in a diversity of voices and opinions. And that virtue matters only if it extends to voices that draw disagreement as well approval.

But no one should be confused about the effect these players are having on the integrity with which people regard all media — and so many other of our vital institutions. These new voices — unrestrained by and often unconcerned with traditional standards of journalistic rigour — foster the belief that everyone and everything is compromised. And then they prove that point with the way in which they go about their business.

I’m a known Liberal — a former partisan and adviser. It says so right at the bottom of this page. That means it’s always been easy to dismiss my opinion as just parroting a party line or a predetermined world view. Hopefully, I have occasionally been persuasive based on argument, not just ideology. But the point is that no one could fairly claim confusion. For more than three years the Ottawa Citizen — because of its commitment to responsible journalism — has made it clear who I am and left it to readers to judge for themselves. That’s honest. That’s fair. That’s what the MSM does for you.

So if, in the aftermath of this ghastly, grimy election, there are hard questions to be faced by the media, let those questions go first to the Alt-Right. It is they who are leading the charge in the systematic lowering of standards. It is they who want to see the temple in which they dwell torn down. It is they who blur news and advocacy with an overt mission to target and take out opponents. It’s not even about bias. It’s about professional standards. This is what threatens to replace traditional journalism, and not slowly either, given the financial condition of most media companies.

Chances are, we’re going to miss real journalism when it’s gone.

—Scott Reid is a principal at Feschuk.Reid and a CTV News political analyst. He was director of communications for former prime minister Paul Martin. Follow him on Twitter.com/_scottreid.

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